The Administrative System in India Reached a Very High Level during the Chola Period

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The administrative system in India reached a very high level during the Chola period due to the following reasons:

The system of Chola administration was highly organized and efficient. The Cholas alone were able to ignore their feudatories to a significant extent unlike the Chalukayas the Rashtrakutas and the Hoyasalas.

The Chola political system was the only one which still maintained contact with the cultivators on a wide scale, and retained characteristics of a centrally organized administration.

The king was the pivot of the whole state machinery. All authority rested in his hands, but he had a council of ministers to advise him. The kings often went on tours in order to keep jpetter touch with administration. A highly organized administration included efficient officers of different ranks. Higher officials were called Parundam; where as lower officers were known as Shirudanam.

The posts of the officers were hereditary and there was hardly any difference among the civil and military officials. Officers were granted lands instead of cash for their services. From Chola inscriptions, we came to know that the presence of all the officers was mandatory at the movement when there was any announcement made by the king. For the purpose of both extending and defending their frontiers, the Chola had organized a powerful army. The king led the army in the time of war in addition to yuvaraja and generals.

The Chola Empire was divided in the six provinces called mandalams. Each mandalam was divided into valanadu or kottams or divisions comprising various districts. Each kottam was divided into Nadus or districts. These in turn were subdivided into a number of Tehsils or village unions called kurrams, and each kurram comprised of various villages, generally five.

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Occasionally a very large village would be administered as a single unit and this was called a taniyur. A mandalam or province was put under the charge of a viceroy who usually belonged to the royal family or was otherwise a very trusted person of the ruler.

There was an extensive growth of industry crafts, trade and agricultural productions in the Chola Empire. Keeping- all these in view records were prepared carefully in respect of landed rights and outstanding revenues. According to Chola inscriptions, the entire land of the Cholamandalam was surveyed during the reigns of Rajendera I and Kulatunga I in order to ensure land revenues.

Besides land tax the other sources of revenue were flat tax, customs, profession duties, water cuss and fines, wood taxes, marriage tax and mines tax. It appears that the government tapped almost all conceivable sources of revenue to fill its coffers. But the Chola rulers spent a major portion of their income on the welfare of their subjects rather than on their personal comforts.

From time to time the king personally went on tours to see that the officers did not interfere with the free life of the people. Money was spent liberally on the construction of temples, roads, canals and other works of public utility. They took special interest in providing irrigation facilities to farmers.

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Justice was mostly a matter of local concern. The village assemblies enjoyed great powers in the field of justice. We have the mentions of Dharmasana and Dharmasasana Bhatta recorded in Chola inscriptions. Dharmasana was meant for the court of monarch.

The administrative unit was the village and the nature of village administration was certainly of a very different order. The degree of autonomy at village level was something quite remarkable for the times Chola officers participated in village affairs more as advisers and observers than administrators.

The Chola pattern of government was based more or less on democratic principles and most of the business was carried on by popular assemblies. The most important assemblies were of four kinds. The Natytar was the assembly of a whole district or Nadu and decided all the cases pertaining to the unit. Nagarattar was an assembly of the merchants and trade4rs.

Ur was the general assembly of the village. Sabha or Mahasabha was the most popular assembly where only the selected few and the elders of the village took part and carried on the business of following a regular procedure. It wielded a great authority in the administration of the rural areas.

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The Cholas did not believe in centralization of administration, on the other hand they had allowed vast powers to their local units. The kurrams or unions of villages and the villages enjoyed self-government and remained unaffected from the central politics. The famous Uttaramerur inscription of 919 and 929 AD of the period of Parantaka gives details of how the local self-government and village administration functioned.

The Chola pattern of committees was called variyam. There were three types of village assemblies existed in the Cholamandalam – Ur, Sabha or Mahasabha and Nagaram. The Ur consisted of taxpaying residents of an ordinary village. The Sabha was restricted to the Brahmans. But the Nagaram was found more commonly in trade centers. Since, it catered almost entirely for mercantile interests. In some villages the Ur and the Sabha are found together. Very large villages had two Urns as this was more convenient for their functioning.